10 Most BRUTAL Deaths In History

Julius Caesar

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Serving as the dictator of Rome between 49 and 44 BC, Julius Caesar went out in dramatic fashion. Caesar’s senators feared that he was growing too tyrannical and was no longer fit to lead the Roman Republic. As a result, they committed what they saw as tyrannicide and killed Caesar in the Curia of Pompey. On March 15, 44 BC, Caesar was stabbed a total of twenty-three times, and the resulting autopsy theorized that he had died from severe blood loss. Despite the numerous stabbings, it’s believed that only one of the wounds proved fatal. Caesar’s wildly dramatic death was later turned into the subject of theater and immortalized in Shakespeare’s famous play.

The Salem witch trials are a regrettable if fascinating stain on American history. In the late 1600s, hundreds of people in colonial Massachusetts were accused of witchcraft and many were killed. A farmer named Giles Corey had it pretty darned bad. Corey was accused of witchcraft but refused to enter a plea. When this happened, the accused would be subjected to a form of torture called “Peine forte et dure.” Corey was laid on the ground and large rocks were placed on top of him. The hope was that the increasing weight would cause so much pain that Corey would eventually cave and enter a plea. But Corey remained silent, and the accumulative weight slowly but surely crushed him to death.

The Brazen Bull

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20 Most BRUTAL Deaths In History

Modern historians aren’t sure if the brazen bull really existed, but it is extensively referenced by an ancient Greek historian named Diodorus Siculus. Siculus wrote about the brazen bull in his famous work “Bibliotheca historica.” Back in the 500s BC, the city of Akragas, Sicily was ruled by the tyrant Phalaris. As the story goes, a man named Perilaus made the brazen bull for Phalaris as a new method of execution. A condemned criminal would climb inside the hollow, bronze bull, and a fire would be lit directly underneath it. The interior of the bull would then gradually increase in temperature, and the criminal inside was slowly roasted to death. Their screams would then be heard as bull sounds from the outside.

David Douglas

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A famous botanist from the 19th century, David Douglas is the namesake of the Douglas fir tree of western North America. After traversing the Pacific Northwest, Douglas made his way to Hawaii, and it was here that he would die. Douglas was climbing a dormant volcano called Mauna Kea when he fell into a trapping pit meant for wild cattle. While inside the pit, Douglas was mauled and trampled to death by a wild bull. Not a great way to go. However, suspicion also fell on a local hunter named Edward Gurney. Gurney was the last person to see Douglas alive, money was missing from Douglas’s body after it was recovered, and it was Gurney’s pit into which Douglas supposedly fell.

Saint Lawrence

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A Christian martyr, Saint Lawrence was a Roman deacon under Pope Sixtus II, who served for just one year between 257 and 258 AD. The Roman Emperor Valerian persecuted Christians and ordered the execution of its leaders. As a result, many prominent Christians were killed in August of 258, including Pope Sixtus II and Saint Lawrence. Legend has it that Lawrence was placed on a gridiron over some coals and essentially cooked to death. As a result, he’s now the patron saint of chefs! This account was recorded by a poet named Prudentius and St. Ambrose of Milan. However, some modern historians contest this story, arguing instead that Lawrence was decapitated like Pope Sixtus II.

William Wallace

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Born in 1270, William Wallace has been immortalized in pop culture thanks to Mel Gibson and his seminal film “Braveheart.” After fighting for Scottish independence, Wallace was named Guardian of Scotland and eventually convicted of high treason by King Edward I of England. Wallace was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. We won’t get into specifics, but suffice to say, “quartered” is exactly what it sounds like. Following the incredibly graphic and painful execution, Wallace (or what was left of him) was made an example of atop London Bridge. Things were done very, very differently back then.

György Dózsa

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Medieval Europe was filled with revolts and uprisings, and György Dózsa of Transylvania led one of them. In the early 1500s, Dózsa led a peasants’ rebellion against the nobility of the Kingdom of Hungary. He and his soldiers fought well, but they didn’t stand a chance against the Kingdom’s massive army. Dózsa was eventually captured, and his execution was crafted to mock his ambitions. Dózsa was placed on a scalding iron throne and forced to wear a smoldering crown. He was then made to witness the execution of his own brother. And while Dózsa was still alive, his body, shall we say, “provided sustenance” for other prisoners of war. That must have made for one hellish sight.

Radiation sickness is an extraordinarily painful way to go, and while most people remember disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima, the worst nuclear-related death started in the Japanese village of Tōkai. On September 30, 1999, technician Hisashi Ouchi was blasted with an enormous amount of radiation. Following the accident, Ouchi immediately felt sick and grew disoriented. While at the hospital, it was discovered that the incident had essentially destroyed Ouchi’s immune system and that it was only a matter of time before he died. But his family insisted that the doctors do everything they could, so they kept Ouchi alive for months, despite his body literally withering away. After numerous resuscitations, Ouchi finally died of a massive heart attack.

This man has a reputation for being incredibly hard to kill - a reputation that is buoyed by the likes of the animated “Anastasia” movie and that super catchy Boney M. song. Rasputin was a supposed mystical healer who found himself in the social circles of Russian nobility. Accounts of his last stand are exaggerated, but yes, he certainly did experience a prolonged and painful death. First, he ate cake and drank wine that had been laced with cyanide. Nothing happened. Conspirators dropping pretenses, he was then shot in the chest. He collapsed but ultimately survived. It took two more shots - including one to the head - to finally put Rasputin down for good. His body was subsequently dumped into the Malaya Nevka River in Saint Petersburg.

In March of 1580, King Philip II of Spain offered a sizable reward for the head of William of Orange. William was the leader of the Dutch Revolt against Spain and one of the main instigators of the Eighty Years’ War. This bounty was answered by a man named Balthasar Gérard, who killed William on July 10, 1584. In response, Gérard was tortured and executed. The methods of torture were extraordinarily harsh, even for the time. The ordeal is way too graphic to be conveyed, but it consists of 300-pound weights, fire, branding, flaying, and sharp nails. Gérard was finally put out of his misery in the market square on July 14, having suffered what is probably the worst death in human history.